The Ferrari drivers only completed nine laps apiece and waited for half the session before they began their morning programmes. But with five minutes to go, just as Jenson Button posted a time that got within 0.3s of the red cars, Schumacher stuck in his quick lap. Minutes later Barrichello did the same and the gap to the rest was once again extended.

Webber did an excellent job. Bearing in mind the nightmare that Jaguar faced on Thursday, when all three cars had problems and the Australian missed the second session altogether, to end up third fastest was pretty clever.

Both Webber and team-mate Christian Klien were on track as soon as the pitlane opened trying to make up the lost time and, until the majority of the field came out, ruled the time-sheets. Klien could not match his team-mate's pace however and ended the session 16th.Jenson Button was fourth fastest in his BAR-Honda. He probably could have gone quicker, but the swimming pool section was under yellow flgas during his outlap following Felipe Massa's harmless spin. The Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso were fifth and sixth ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren and Takuma Sato's BAR.

Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest Williams driver, nearly a second off the pace, ahead of David Coulthard in tenth place. Ralf Schumacher was next, three tenths away from his team-mate's pace. Giancarlo Fisichella was 12th in the Sauber ahead of Cristiano da Matta's Toyota.

Giorgio Pantano was impressive for Jordan in 14th place. Faster than his team-mate Nick Heidfeld by more than a second, the Italian was ahead of two factory cars – Olivier Panis' Toyota (15th) and Klien (16th).

Both Minardi drivers crashed before the halfway point in the session. Gianmaria Bruni clipped the wall on the exit of Casino Square damaging his left front suspension while Zsolt Baumgartner made a total mess of La Rascasse.